Cyclonis Falling
by wayofthepen
Summary: Piper wakes in a cell, a prisoner of Cyclonis. She has plans for the Storm Hawk, giving her no choice but to assist with her latest devious scheme. Except it's not a devious scheme at all, and Piper can't bring herself to refuse. Now, all Piper has to do is keep her fellow Storm Hawks from 'rescuing' her before the work is done, and survive Cyclonis' hospitality. Easy, right? PxMC
1. Chapter 1

Head pounding, Piper groaned and tried to open her eyes. A glaring light made her turn away, but something held her still, and she fought the rising tide of panic in her chest as she felt the restraints around her limbs. Blinking away tears as she opened her eyes, the iron shackles around her wrists came into focus.

"W-where…what…"

It was a dirty, bare room that might have been any one of a thousand in Atmos. It was certainly a cell, and her chair faced a heavy door with a tiny, barred window. There was nothing to tell her where was or how she'd got there.

Some time later, she couldn't tell how long, there was the sound of boots on stone. The window on the cell door slid open, then snapped shut a moment later. Piper heard the echo of boot recede. Silence again. Time passed. Now, it was dozen boots sounding a march towards her cell.

"Hello, Piper."

Cyclonis' voice grabbed Piper's attention in a vice. She stepped into the cell alone, circling Piper and taking her time to examine her captive.

"Where am I? Where are my friends?"

"Oh, I didn't bother bringing any of them along. I only wanted to spend a little time with my favorite sky knight. _Alone_."

Fingers brushed Piper's shoulder, but the wide back of the chair prevented her from looking back at Cyclonis. Piper shifted as much as the bonds allowed her to push the hand away, and when Cyclonis stepped back into view, her expression was edged with anger.

"I already told you that I won't join Cyclonia!"

"Oh, you really don't have a choice, Piper."

"There is nothing you can do that will ch-"

"You have no idea THE THINGS I CAN DO TO YOU!"

Cyclonis' nails dug into Piper's shoulders. The sky knight hadn't even seen the girl move before her face was inches away from her own.

"But fortunately for you, most of them would leave you unable to do what I require. Or be able to do much of anything really, and I _want_ you…intact."

Cyclonis wore a wicked grin, and there was nothing to take Piper's mind away from the reality she faced. Alone. Helpless. At the mercy of someone…that had none.

"…What do you want?"

"That's more like it…"

* * *

Piper had to admit, for a psychopath bent on world domination, Cyclonis knew how to make an awesome crystal lab. The multi-level structure was stocked with some of the most advanced devices on Atmos, half of which were likely invented by Cyclonis herself.

And the crystals…oh sweet Atmos the crystals…

Every kind, every cut, strange artificial designs and half-formed seeds floating in nutrient baths filled every centimeter of free space. It was a treasure trove that she had free reign to play in.

Almost.

"When you're done giggling, we have work to do."

"I was not giggling!"

Cyclonis' smirk said otherwise, and the sky knight backed away from the crystal vat she'd been caressing. Cyclonis placed a knot of scrolls of a workbench and unraveled one, beckoning Piper forwards.

Piper had never seen anything like it. The scroll described the degradation of a crystal's structure. But the crystal was a type she'd never seen before, and the…rot…wasn't something that should even be possible, as far as she could tell.

Piper lost herself in the contents of the rest of the scrolls. Some of the information was incomplete, such as how the unique crystals had been made, or what their intended purpose was. Cyclonis had made notes in the margins in her own spidery script, but there was still a great deal missing.

"This is why I brought you here. You are going to find a way to stop the crystal's degradation and repair the damage."

"But…I've never seen anything like this! Anywhere! And the conditions your notes describe…you want to work on the crystal's energy pathways while the crystals are still active?!"

"That's right."

"But that's impossible!"

Cyclonis advanced on her, and Piper backed away, trying to put the table between them. The girl's outline flickered with crystal energy and Cyclonis was again close enough to touch, her arms gripping the table edge and trapping Piper between them.

"Failure is unacceptable. I'll give you three days to solve this little mystery, or…let's say that everyone on Cyclonia will die**."**

"You-you'd kill all those people, if I don't help you build your little doomsday weapon?"

"Oh, that's beside the point. And I never said it was a weapon…"

"Then what is it?"

Cyclonis sighed, tilting her body forwards, coming close enough for Piper to feel hot breath on her face.

"You're a smart girl, Piper. Figure it out. That's why I brought you here."

Cyclonis pulled away, slowly, and turned to leave. Piper slumped against the table, trying to get her breathing under control. What did Cyclonis really want with her? Piper had been handed an impossible puzzle, she was certain of that. No one, even Cyclonis herself, could possibly…

"You need my help."

Halfway out the door, Cyclonis stopped.

"Somehow, this…crystal rot is putting Cyclonia in danger, and you…you couldn't figure it out, so you kidnapped me, hoping I'd know what to do."

"Clever girl…"

When she turned around, Cyclonis was smiling in an almost halfway pleasant manner.

"You really should have accepted my earlier offer, Piper. The things we could do together…"

Perhaps it was just Piper's imagination, but there was less of the usual spite in Cyclonis' voice as she said those words.

"So this rot…what is it, exactly? What caused it? And how is it a danger to Cyclonia?"

"I don't know when or how it started, but a chain reaction is spreading throughout the crystal veins in Cyclonia's foundation. Crystals are being converted into this new structure, and the crystals cause earthquakes that are growing in intensity. I estimate that unless the changes are stopped and reversed then Cyclonia will break apart and fall into the wasteland in as little as a week's time."

"A week? That's…you expect me to stop this conversion and perform a re-crystallization procedure across the crystal fundament of an entire terra in a _week_? And you expect me to do it alone?"

"There is no other option! Nothing I tried had the slightest effect! Why do you think I had you brought here?!"

"But it would take days just to internalize all this information, and that's time Cyclonia doesn't have to spare! I'll lose even more time chasing solutions you've already attempted!"

Cyclonis snarled, and a crystal sewn into her sleeve began to glow. Piper refused to back down, striding forwards until they were face-to-face…and then she leaned closer, trying her best to act relaxed despite the danger.

"C'mon…you and me, working together. _You know you want to_."

The crystal flared…and then fell silent. Cyclonis' eyes widened, her expression ecstatic for a split second before her eyes hardened and she lead Piper back to the workstation in an iron grip. A wave of her hand levitated a scroll into the air for easy reading, and she began expounding on the shorthand notes in the margin in the voice of an irate teacher to an incompetent student. Piper listened carefully, only interrupting to ask for clarification on various point as Cyclonis went through what she had done so far to stop the rot, explaining her thought processes and the reasoning behind each theory.

* * *

_This is something I've been sitting on for a while. I don't know when I'll get around to working on it again._

_Also, while I liked the series, I really felt there was a lot missing to the setting, and had the idea one day to try filling in some of the blanks._

_The Fic should be (mostly) canon, with a few references to my own ideas sprinkled here and there._


	2. Chapter 2

It took hours to go over every scrap of information Cyclonis had on the rot spreading throughout the Terra's fundament. It was a lot to take in, and Piper had to consciously keep her mind on the task at hand, and not the incredible ideas whirling through her mind that had been inspired by seeing Cyclonis' work in detail.

"This…this is amazing. You're amazing!"

"Flattery will not save you, Piper."

Piper hoped the girl was being sarcastic. She really couldn't tell.

"But where's the seed crystal? You must have plotted the conversion vectors-"

"And placed the origin of the rot somewhere within an area almost a kilometre across, at the very base of Cyclonia-"

"Which could mean that the source of the crystal contagion was brought in on a lava current-"

"Unless that area is isolated from magma flows, as I was able to confirm with seismographic scans."

"Then…" A form of crystal that converted nearby crystals to match its structure, spreading like a virus…it shouldn't be possible. Nothing like this had ever been seen before, but maybe… "This is something completely new, a one-in-a-million oddity perpetuated by unique geological processes under Cyclonia. If it doesn't fit any acknowledged crystal structure module…then we just have to make a new one."

Cyclonis' eyes widened ever so slightly.

"You actually want to completely re-write crystal matrix physics to suit your own pet theory? And people call _me_ a megalomaniac."

"It's not megalomania, its science! If existing models say this crystal can't exist when it clearly does, then we have to admit that what we know is wrong. The only real mistake we could make here is trying to force the evidence to fit outdated models, rather then expanding the theory to fit reality."

Cyclonis gave Piper a very odd look, even for her, before she broke into a wide and surprisingly pleasant grin.

"Are you _absolutely_ sure you don't want to stay here…with me?"

"Oh that'd be nice, other then…You being evil and trying to conquer the world and all that."

The smile vanished.

"Cyclonia would bring safety and order to Atmos. You fight for the rights of a divided Atmos where pointless squabbles drain resources and distract from the real threats."

"Not being under a single banner of government doesn't mean we're divided in purpose. Sometimes, diversity is a source of strength."

"I could name a dozen Terras offhand that have been scourged of life by storm or raider, who might argue with that claim. Oh, wait. They can't. Because they're _dead._"

Cyclonis began to adjust the workstation's holographic controls, when somewhere far away, there was shouting, and the sound of things falling over. And an explosion or two.

"Master Cyclonis!"

Snipe's cry just barely penetrated the lab doors.

"Oh, what is it now? We are trying to-"

The doors exploded inwards, and Snipe came flying in with them. Piper instinctively wrapped herself around the girl next to her, covering Cyclonis' body with her own as they were peppered with fragments of wood.

"Piper! Are you there?"

Cyclonis looked up from under Piper's arm. Familiar and entirely unwelcome faces were in the doorway.

"Get away from Master Cyclonis!"

"Get away from Piper!"

Junko and Snipe charged towards their respective comrades, stopped halfway when they saw who was next to them, and flung themselves at each other.

"That reminds me. There is one way we are perfectly alike, Piper."

"How's that?"

"We are surrounded by _idiots_."

"Come on, that's…"

Finn ran past the doorway, screaming in a very un-manly way as he dodged fire from Ravess. One of the shots parted his hair, and he shrieked anew when he passed a mirror and saw the damage in his reflection.

"Well…"

A squad of talons fell over each other, and Aerrow jumped on top on the squirming mass to gain the high ground, but the Dark Ace quickly forced his way upwards and locked blades with the sky knight. Their contest of strength lasted until a talon succeeded at pulling himself out of the pile and destabilized the entire heap, sending everyone into a tangled spread of flailing limbs.

"It's not like…"

Somewhere outside, the Condor's horn blared, and the room shook as something large and carrier-shaped slammed into the building.

"…It's an off day."

Cyclonis laughed, for just a moment. It was a light, pleasant sound, not steeped in spite and scorn as Piper expected. Although, as the thought occurred to her, Piper had never heard Cyclonis laugh…Except for that one time when she hadn't _been_ Cyclonis…Her trail of thought was cut off by a stray bolt of energy that left a hole in the workstation, and Piper felt, as much as heard, the growl that issued from Cyclonis' throat as her staff flew through the air to her hand.

Through the doorway, one of the smarter talons saw the growing nimbus of power and dived for cover.

* * *

Separated into their own little groups, the Storm Hawks and Cyclonians glared at each other. Side-by-side, Cyclonis and Piper glared at their friends and subordinates. Thankfully, the lab hadn't taken too much damage in the fight, or during the very brief time it took Cyclonis to get the combatants under control.

"So…you weren't kidnapped by Cyclonis?"

"Oh, I was."

"But you want to stay?"

"Just for a few days. I'm actually enjoying myself."

Master Cyclonis said nothing in response to Piper's words, but did shift an almost unnoticeable distance closer to the captive Storm Hawk. She also gave an increasingly foul look towards Aerrow, who was busily trying to convince his comrade that she really should be trying to escape.

As if that fool had any right to order her around…

"Maybe she's being hypnotized?" The blond one suggested.

Hypnotized?! As if she had to resort to such a cheap trick!

"I say we bust her out of here and sort things out later!" The wallop cheered.

As if this wasn't where Piper **belonged**!

"The only thing that's going to happen here-" The Dark Ace began saying.

"Silence!"

The room quieted instantly at Cyclonis' outburst, the inhuman overlay to her words taking an equally unnatural amount of time to stop echoing. Cyclonis stepped close enough to Piper for their bodies to brush together, and pulled her close with a firm grip on her shoulder, Cyclonis' posture haughty and her tone possessive.

"Piper has made her position quite clear. Now, I **suggest** you all find some way to amuse yourselves far, far away from this laboratory. Our work requires **no** interruptions."

While Cyclonis shifted her glare to her own troops, Aerrow looked pleadingly at Piper, making a coded gesture she knew to translate as 'get ready to jump 'em.' She quickly responded with a countersign, Piper-speak for 'that's a terrible idea.' Aerrow's face made it clear he could not believe what was happening.

"Look, I know this is weird for you guys, but it's important that I stay and help out with this."

"Help out?" This time, it was Snipe who interrupted. "What could Master Cyclonis possibly need you for when she has us?"

"You…don't know?" Piper lowered her voice and turned towards Cyclonis, startled for a moment when she realized just how close their bodies were. "How could you have not told them?"

Cyclonis frowned and pulled Piper even closer, lowering her voice so that no one else could hear.

"That would be pointless. There aren't enough ships in the area to move more then a fraction of Cyclonia's citizens to safety in the projected timeframe. The only possible way to save everyone is with a solution that we create here."

"So…no pressure."

"Master! What shall we do with the rest of the Storm Hawks?"

"I don't _care_. Just keep any brawling far away from the laboratory. And do notinterrupt our work unless it is a matter of **grave** importance."

"You heard the scary lady…" Finn cocked his crossbow. "Let's take this outside."

"Gladly!" Ravess drew an arrow and sounded a low, mournful note from her bowstring as she nocked the shaft.

"There's nowhere for you to hide here, boy." The blade of the Dark Ace ignited with crimson flame.

"And since we're already in Cyclonia, where will you run to after losing?" Aerrow faced his double, swords drawn.

The two forces inched towards each other…and a reddish glow enveloped them all, lifted them off the ground, and threw them into the hall. With no door to close, Piper could see the two groups stumble to their feet and run to get some distance from the angry Crystal Mage. Still crackling with power, Cyclonis' outstretched hand turned towards Piper.

"Hold still."

Her voice was harsh, but it wasn't a threat. Gently, Cyclonis traced a line across Piper's cheek and down the side of her neck, carefully pulling out a splinter that had been protruding from Piper's neck and tossing it away.

"It will take time for the technicians to fix the severed power cables. Until then…"

"How about…lunch?"

Cyclonis blinked, twice, and Piper used the moment of confusion to extricate herself from the other girl's grip. Cyclonis frowned, and Piper cut her off when it almost seemed she would move to grab her again.

"I don't know how long it's been since I last ate."

"…Ah."

Wordlessly, Cyclonis turned to leave. Not knowing what to do, Piper ran to catch up, and Cyclonis slowed her pace just enough that her sworn enemy could catch up and walk with her, side-by-side.


End file.
